Editing The Pen Addict 453/transcript (section)

== Spoke Pen Launch ==


'''Myke:''' So, the Spoke Pen launched last week. Well, the Spoke Pens, oh, these aren't the Spoke Pens, it's pens from Spoke. Spoke Pen's a different thing. Spoke Axle, Axles, and Icon.

'''Myke:''' The Fountain Pens, Myke. The Fountain Pens. I predicted that they would sell very well, I believe, on the show. Mm-hmm. They did. How did it go?

'''Brad:''' Extremely well. I, too, predicted they would sell very well. Mm-hmm. With our limited nib inventory, someone call it a nibventory. They, we sold out of what nib options we had in about 20 minutes. We turned all those off to back orders. So, that was like 99 units, which isn't very much. But still, it just, the pace that they went was very, very fast. Mm-hmm. And me and Brian, like for the first hour, we're just basically watching like the activity and the orders and managing the nibs and making sure there were no mistakes, which there were. We did have like a couple of technical errors. Errors, nothing that prevented anyone from doing anything, just stuff on our side. Overall, we were both very, very happy, thrilled, and pleased with how it went. I was, yeah, just completely ecstatic. And as of yesterday, I've gotten all the nib or pens that were ordered that we had nibventory for. Mm-hmm. I hate, that's a hard word to say. Have shipped. So, if you got a shipping notification, if you haven't had the shipping notification yet, your nibs are on back order, which hopefully you saw that when you placed your order. We switched that to actually read back ordered until April. The good news is our nib predictions have come correct, which you never know when parts are coming from Germany to the U.S. to the distributor to me to me. Oh, my gosh. To Jonathan to get etched and then Jonathan back to me. We have at least gotten them from Germany on the way to the distributor, so our timing is looking pretty good for early April to, you know, get the rest of the pens out there to everyone who ordered them. So, thank you all for ordering, for understanding the nib predicament we were in, and for just supporting what we're doing at Spoke Design. I'm thrilled with everything. People have already gotten them in their hand and have been enjoying them. We've gotten good feedback so far. So, yeah, it was great.

'''Myke:''' Did you say Jonathan is etching them?

'''Brad:''' Yeah, he's doing the laser etching. He bought a machine a month or two ago. Yeah, a month or two ago he bought them. And Brian's got his own laser, but I'm not laser proficient. There are different types of lasers. So, the one Jonathan bought specifically can do the metal on the nibs that we need, where Brian's is a little bit different. You can go to, like, Spoke Design Instagram. Brian put out a, like, this laser etching of our Spoke logos on the top of the pens. It's really, really cool. Y'all should go watch that. But it doesn't work as well for nibs. So, we get Jonathan to do those.

'''Myke:''' And what have the impressions been? Because, obviously, they're arriving with people.

'''Brad:''' So far, glowing. Yep. You know, that's the thing I cross my fingers on, right? Like, I'm really good at, I feel, like, I will, and Brian, I think we're really good at getting it up to the point of sale, right? And, like, we're designing the things, making the things, getting them all ready, getting them out there for sale. And then you send them out into the world. And you're like, that's when you just really start to panic, right? Okay. Now, another person is going to have something in their hands that we think is perfectly awesome. But you never know. Like, we sent no prototypes out of this. Zero. So, we had no public feedback on this, on any pen model other than me showing them online, like, back in December, the very first models. So, that is nerve-wracking. And so far, it's been just 100% positive, completely perfect, glowing type of stuff. But, you know, I mean, you just still never know. We've got to get a quantity out there and make sure everyone has as good experiences as what we've heard so far.

'''Myke:''' How many more, like, roughly are you going to be shipping? Like, lots more than you have already?

'''Brad:''' Way lots more. So, now I'll start, I'll just start making pen barrels and things and getting them ready for nibs. So, hopefully, I can ship them a little faster. It did, it is taking me a little longer to ship, which I anticipated. You know, there's just lots of moving parts in these packages. You know, I've already got an email. Hey, you forgot this part. And, you know, that's just how things go. You try to be 100% with the packing of this stuff. But it's kind of a new process for me. So, still learning curve on the packing stuff, even though I've sent tens of thousands of packages in my life. When you have a new product and it's got new accessories and things like that, it's bound to get a little squirrely. Plus, I'm also wanting to get these out quickly. So, trying not to move too quick and get ahead of myself, trying to take my time, even if it's going to take longer. It's just going to take longer to pack fountain pens and, you know, set them up and do all that stuff.

'''Myke:''' Right. Mine has arrived. That's insane. You had an option for UPS shipping. And I'll always take that option over postal service shipping where I can because I get actual tracking.

'''Brad:''' Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So, let's talk about that for a second. We actually made a last-minute decision. Maybe even launch morning, we might have been on the phone thinking about this, that we're still in a worldwide postal delivery mess where things just up and vanish. And now we're at a much higher price point product. And the amount of support we get from USPS internationally is not good. Mm-hmm. Right. So, we actually switched international shipping over to UPS. Now, the difference is it's extraordinarily expensive in relation to what we would normally ship. It's at least double of what it would normally be. Yeah. But there's a lot more safety built into that. Mm-hmm. There is massive time differences built into that. Right? You got yours in less than a week.

'''Myke:''' And arrived this morning.

'''Brad:''' It might be like five days from when I ship. So, no. So, I dropped yours off. I'd have to go look at it. I don't think I dropped yours off until like...

'''Brad:''' It was either Friday or Saturday.

'''Myke:''' I got a thing to tell me on Sunday it was on the way. So, and it's arrived today.

'''Brad:''' So, like less than five days. Mm-hmm. Which USPS would go... We wouldn't even have this conversation for two weeks going out of packages. Oh, of course. At least. Like we... It wouldn't even be a topic of conversation because that amount of time hasn't passed. Yeah. So, yes, it's very expensive to ship UPS internationally. But the safety on both sides of the transaction we feel is worth it. It's still a little bit of a shock when you see that number in there because it probably costs about $40 to ship your package. Something in that 40-something range. Yeah. Give or take. A few bucks. And that could be a sticker shock. But I'm glad it... I was shocked when you said it arrived this morning, to be honest. Like, because we haven't done a lot of this yet.

'''Myke:''' I had to pay customs. Yeah. Of course. Right? So, I had a customs fee, but I was expecting that. So, yeah. The getting it here is pricey, but I did want it first. So, I have no... I was really happy. So... Yeah.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. I wasn't anticipating you having them. So, what do you think?

'''Myke:''' Let me start with the axle.

'''Brad:''' Okay. Which one did you get? Did you get the long one or the short one? I don't remember.

'''Myke:''' I got the regular one. The axle. Okay. Yep. I went with blue and titanium. Yep. So, you know, this pen, I didn't really... This one isn't the one for me, right? It's like, I like it, but it's out of the two, this isn't the one that I would have expected to like the most anyway. Just because, just from a design perspective, I was more intrigued by the icon. Right. And I would say that the axle, it lives up to what I would have expected from a pen like this. There is a part of me that now thinks, well, maybe the S would actually be more fun in a way, because it's weird. Like, you know, this is so small. And now that I've used the axle, like, it just would be interesting to me to see like the grip and the cap of this size of a body way smaller. Because like, I can't post the axle. I don't like the axle posted. Yes. So like, I just, you know, I'm intrigued to try out an axle S at some point as well. But like, this is, I would say that this is like what I would think of as like the quintessential spoke aesthetic fountain pen. Right? Like, if I was going to imagine what you guys would do to make a fountain pen, it would look kind of like this one. Where, like, and that is in the fact that everything lines up, right? There's no curve in it at all. It is just like, very like industrial design. And I like the general aesthetic of spoke anyway. It's like I have the spoke. Which one do I have? I mean, way back in the day, the spoke for mechanical pencil. Because I remember the two of us freaking out when we saw that. Yeah. So I do enjoy the aesthetic. It's different to a lot of the typical aesthetics that I get. And I mean, look, ultimately for me, the experience is one in the number six nib. Yes. Right? Like, even the regular Axel is still a, I would consider, more than pocketable pen in its size. And the fact that it has a number six nib on it, I think is just such a fantastic decision that you made to do that. Because it is just a nicer experience to use the whole way around.

'''Brad:''' So I think it's interesting what you said about, like, this is the fountain pen you'd expect from us. The spoke. If you could think of a spoke fountain pen before it existed, like, you would think this is what would come out of that. And I haven't thought of it that way because we did a second pen with this. But I think you're exactly right in saying that, right? Like, that is a very spoke thing, even though the icon, which we'll talk about in a minute, is, too, by some of the design cues. Yeah, I see exactly what you're saying, and I agree with that completely.